Shadowland
Directed by Osto Tiainen
Featuring Richard Stanley, Scarlett Amaris, Anaiya Sophia
Unrated
Runtime: 98 minutes
Premiered at Beyond Fest

by Kate Beach, Staff Writer

When filmmaker Osto Tiainen set out to explore the mysteries of Montsegur, he thought he knew what he was in for. The destruction of his expectations and the revelations hidden in the French Pyrenees form Shadowland, a documentary that begins in a dreamy haze and slowly curdles into a nightmare. 

Tucked away in the south of France, Montsegur is home to a castle and a community of seekers. It was once a stronghold of the Cathars, a Gnostic movement considered heretical by the Catholic Church and destroyed during the Inquisition. Today, nearly eight hundred years later, residents and visitors honor their spiritual ancestors by making what they call “The Zone” into a place of religious discovery and enlightenment. Anaiya Sophia is a priestess who runs an inn in the valley beneath the castle. She follows Mary Magdalene, who she believes traveled to the Zone after the crucifixion, and spends her time ministering mainly to women escaping trauma and abuse. Iranon, who calls himself a mage, is interested in secret societies, mysteries, and the occult. Uranie is a sorcerer, making potions and casting spells in the caves and outcroppings of Montsegur. They are all people who felt othered by the outside world, who came to The Zone looking not only for answers, but for belonging. They believe that The Zone is a place where the human world and the world of the sacred overlap, where the veil is thin. 

Richard Stanley made it to Montsegur in the early 2000s. A seeker like the rest, he quickly ingratiated himself with Anaiya Sophia, Iranon, Uranie and the wider community. He claimed to see a Marian apparition at Chateau Montsegur in 2007, and was convincing enough that Anaiya came to believe that Mary had chosen Stanley specifically to tell her story. He is, after all, a filmmaker. A career of fits, starts, and creative differences yielded a handful of films, from cult hit Hardware to the well-received comeback Color Out of Space, starring Nicolas Cage. For nearly twenty years, Stanley lived in semi-exile, securing his place as a leading figure in The Zone while also plotting his return to Hollywood. The filmmakers arrived in France looking to capture the lives of this group of spiritual misfits, with Stanley as the charismatic figure at its center. When Scarlett Amaris, a former partner who lived with Stanley in Montsegur, publicly accuses him of horrific abuse, they know they must pivot quickly or abandon the project. They make the decision to confront Stanley. 

What follows is a fascinating, infuriating, and occasionally rewarding story. Tiainen and his crew refused to allow Stanley’s self-mythologizing to go unquestioned. As more accusations pile up and Stanley’s precious comeback begins to evaporate, the film tracks his panic, his anger, and his last-ditch attempts at manipulation. The crew also spends time with Anaiya and Iranon in the aftermath of the allegations, at one point even filming Anaiya reacting in real time to a particularly damning article. “I said Richard was my only friend,” she notes after realizing the severity of the allegations. “He might not classify me as a friend. I’m a something he has in his back pocket.” It’s heartbreaking and wrenching to watch her reckon with the truth about someone she saw as a kindred spirit, someone she defended and even baptized. As someone who left the outside world behind following her own abuse and trauma, it feels especially galling. Scarlett Amaris left The Zone entirely, noting that most people there sided with Stanley due to his celebrity, his reputation as a spiritual being who had witnessed a Marian apparition, and the fact that he stayed in the area while she left. 

It could be argued that the film gives Stanley too much time and space to try to bend the narrative to his will. It lets him do and say just about whatever he wants in his attempts to save both his filmmaking career and his reputation in The Zone. It’s the right choice. Watching Stanley become increasingly desperate and angry, offering only conspiracy theories and misogyny, lays bare his true nature. Shadowland is a smart, confident documentary that aims to show the world just how easy it is to fall under a dangerous spell.